Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0487
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-0487
+44 1478 350008
Jace Pillay
Rand Afrikaans University, South Africa
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychol Psychother
Child-headed households (CHH) are increasingly becoming a characteristic of society in South Africa and various parts of Africa. Given the rising number of CHH, it is inevitable that the socialization of children within the context of families emerges as an area of great concern. An understanding of children�s lives and their positions within African families in South Africa is a critical research need. The author attempts to fill the knowledge gap on the experiences of children from child-headed families by integrating several studies that were either conducted or supervised by him over the last decade. The intention is to present a holistic picture on the mental health of children from CHH within their homes, schools and communities as construed through the lens of bio-ecological systems theory and positive psychology. The findings reveal the struggles of the children with their living conditions, changing roles of family members, fears of the community and school experiences, all of which affect their mental health. A poignant feature of the studies is the resilient nature of some of the children from CHH. Taking the socio-cultural context of the children into consideration the author argues that positive psychology and psychotherapy could be instrumental in transforming the mental health care of children from CHH as manifested in their adaptations, adjustments and survival mechanisms. The findings and recommendations made in this paper have global value since there are CHH throughout the world.
Email: jacep@uj.ac.za